Method and apparatus for extracting cardiac information from acoustic information acquired with an ultrasound device
US6312382A · kind A · utility
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 15, 1999 |
| Grant date | Nov 6, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 15, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S7/52066
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for processing acoustic information obtained with an ultrasound device to generate cardiac information, such as, for example, a patient's heart rate. In accordance with the present invention, an ultrasound system is utilized to image a patient's heart to obtain acoustic information relating to the patient's heart. The acoustic information is converted into electrical information, which is then processed to extract a particular feature of interest therefrom, such as, for example, the patient's heart rate. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, processing of the electrical signals comprises the steps of generating a time-series from a series of image frames and then performing a spectral analysis on the time-series. The features of interest are then easily extracted from the results of the spectral analysis. In generating the time-series, the same line and depth in the ultrasound envelope is used from each image frame to obtain the sample from the image frame to be used in the time-series. The samples derived from the series of image frames are concatenated together to produce the time-series. The sp…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.